As time past many people download music from the internet, and these became very popular. The record companies were fairly upset over this turn of events, and understandably so: They weren't making any money off the distribution of their product to millions of people.

An external writable CD drive, also called a
CD burner: With this type of drive, you can take music
or data files from your computer and make your own
CDs.

But there was money to be made on the "Napster revolution,"
as electronics manufacturers and retailers soon discovered. In
1999, 2000 and early 2001, sales of CD burners and blank
CD-Recordable discs skyrocketed. Suddenly it was feasible for
the average person to gather songs and make their own CDs, and
music-mix makers everywhere wanted to get their hands on the
means of production. Today, writable CD drives (CD burners)
are standard equipment in new PCs, and more and more audio
enthusiasts are adding separate CD burners to their stereo
systems. In less than five years, CDs have eclipsed
cassette tapes as the mix medium of choice.